PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



Vol. II. 



New York, September, 1895. 



No. 9. 



SANTAL WOOD OIL. 



By E. J. PARRY, B.Sc 



In the recent advances made in quan- 

 titative methods for the examination of 

 essential oils, santal oil appears to have 

 been entirely neglected. Chapoteaut, 

 after a very careful study of the oil, an- 

 nounced some time ago that it consisted 

 almost entirely of two bodies C 15 H 2 , ; 0, an 

 alcohol termed santalol, and C 15 H 24 0, 

 probably the corresponding aldehyde, 

 which only occurs in small quantities. 

 These facts made me think that a quan- 

 titative method for the estimation of the 

 value of the oil would not be difficult to 

 apply. Naturally, I turned my attention, 

 in the first place, to the presence of the 

 aldehyde; but, although unable to devise 

 any modification of the well-known bi- 

 sulphite method to separate this body, I 

 was able to confirm its presence, and 

 hope later on to have a method for its 

 estimation to announce. The alcohol 

 then, of course, occupied my attention. 

 I may here mention that there are pres- 

 ent in normal santal oil traces of an acid 

 probably due to oxidation of the two 

 bodies above mentioned, and variable 



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quantities of a saponifiable oil, possibly 

 an ester of santalol. Santalol, however, 

 appears to constitute the bulk of the oil, 

 and the aldehyde lowers the gravity 

 of the oil, while the saponifiable oil 

 raises it. After a number of experi- 

 ments, I found that the best way of valu- 

 ing the oil was by an estimation of the 

 amount of santalol (or other alcoholic 

 bodies if they are present, expressed in 

 terms of santalol). This is effected by 

 conversion of the santalol into an acetate 

 and an estimation of the amount of acetic 

 acid present in the acetylated oil. To 

 save tedious calculations, the result may 

 be expressed in terms of potash necessary 

 to saponify the acetylated oil. About 10 

 grs. of the oil are digested with an equal 

 volume of glacial acetic acid (this should 

 be at least 99.5 per cent.), in a pressure 

 flask for an hour and a half at 150 . The 

 resulting oil should be well washed in a 

 separator until the last traces of acetic 

 acid are removed. After drying the oil 

 it is saponified with alcoholic potash in 

 the ordinary way, and the amount of 



